It has become commonplace for suppliers of surgical needles to supply such needles with a length of ligature material secured to the needle. This is especially the case for needles of the relatively smaller sizes, such as those used in opthalmic, neorologic, plastic, vascular and microsurgery. The convention that is adopted in this specification is to refer to the combined unit of the needle and ligature or surgical thread as a "suture". Such sutures can be "single-armed" (i.e., having a needle attached to one end of the ligature) or "double-armed" (i.e., having a needle attached to each end of the ligature).
In order to facilitate use of the suture by the surgeon and prevent the cutting edges or points of the needles from becoming damaged and the ligatures from becoming kinked, knotted or tangled, many different types of packages have been conceived for surgical sutures. In some of these designs, the sharp points of needles are received in a small block of pierceable material and the ligature is either wound about or folded within portions of the package. Examples of such packages are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,951,261, 3,985,227 and 4,120,395. In these designs, a small block of pierceable material is used to hold the needle and this small piece can become dislodged from its holder and be lost for further use in the surgical field. Also, with packages of this type, the ligatures tend to become tangled.
To overcome these disadvantages, suture packages utilizing a relatively large, flat body of a pierceable, nonsloughing foam material have been proposed and used. In one such package, the holder comprises a somewhat rectangular foam block having two relatively small cut-outs in opposed side edges to receive the needle, the ligature being wrapped about the central portion of the holder. Other forms of suture packages employing blocks of pierceable material to hold and protect sutures are shown in copending application Ser. No. 914,276, filed June 9, 1978 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,431.